This invention relates in general to video apparatus capable of capturing fast moving events. More particularly, this invention relates to video apparatus including a compact, easy-to-use variable video camera with automatically variable diaphragm and shutter control.
The need often arises for recording high speed or rapidly changing scenes so that the scene may be played back in slow or stopped motion in order to analyze the scene. Where a standard video camera is used to record high speed events, the frame rate of the camera is too slow to stop the motion of the event. There is thus a likelihood of blurring of the recorded image so that analysis of the scene is difficult. Such analysis capabilities are for example, desirable in analyzing the motions of an athlete while engaged in an athletic event, such as football, baseball, golfing, or the like. Thus, it may be desirable to capture the motion of a swinging golf club in order to correct a defect in the golfer's swing. Stop action shots may be used in football games in order to analyze the correctness of a referee's call on a play, or to analyze the movements of a football player, such as those of a quarterback in throwing a football to a receiver. Although motion picture cameras have been used to analyze such athletic events, there have been problems since film is costly and the delay between filming and viewing is far too long to be useful for more than archival use. Although various video systems have been proposed which would obviate these objections to the use of film by reducing recording media cost and making playback instantly available through a television monitor, the video systems have been expensive, heavy, bulky, and hard to use. Moreover, where manually adjustable shuttered video cameras have been proposed, the possibility existed that a specific high speed event is not captured because an inadequate shutter speed has been chosen by the camera operator.